Cotton-gin



O eeee tseeeee 1. B. ANDREWS.

COTTON GIN.

No.375,115. Patented De.20,188'7.

INVENTOR BY mm Kg 7 ATTORNEYS.

(No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 2.

B. ANDREWS.

1%. 375,115. Patented Dec. 20, 1887.

WITNESSES: I

, I BY (No Model.) k 3 Sheets-Sheet 3. B. AN DREWS.

COTTON GIN. No. 375,115. Patented Dec. 20, 1887.

WITN'ES ES: I INVENTOR: f

BY (W ATTORNEYS.

N. PETERS. Pholo-Uthographor, Wasnmgtan. n a

\ 4 V UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

BENJAMIN ANDREWS, OF NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA.

COTTON-GIN.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No 375,115, dated December 20, 1887.

Application filed January 31, 1887. Serial No. 226.039. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, BENJAMIN ANDREWS, of New Orleans, in the parish of Orleans and State of Louisiana, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Cotton-Gins, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to that class of cottongins in which a series of saws seize the cotton fiber from the rollboX and carry it through a series of ribs to a brush, which delivers it in a fleece, while the cotton-seeds which are too large to pass between the ribs drop down through the bottom of the roll-box. This form of gin, which is in common use, discharges as the products of its operation, first, the perfect cotton-seed, which fall out the bottom of the roll-box; secondly, the fleece of cotton, which is delivered by the brush to the rear of the gin, and, thirdly, a product called motes, which is in the nature of imperfectly-formed or immature cotton-seed and parts of the hull, which are so small and'ela-stic as to allow them to be pulled through the ribs by the saws, and which,with more or less cotton-fiber adhering to them, are discharged by the beating action and blast of the brush into a receptacle in the bottom of the gin between the saws and the brush. This stock is not sufficiently valuable to justify the expense of transportation, and it is usually either fed to furnaces or dumped into the fields and allowed to rot and act as a fertilizer.

The object of my invention is to provide such an improved form of gin of the general construction described as will permit of the successful re-ginning of this stock, so as to reclaim the fiber and separate it into grades of stock having good merchantable value in the arts, and which construction of gin is also designed to act upon the motestock of mills, which is composed of curled and matted knots and small foreign particles which are dropped by the cards, and which at present has such slight market value as to be used only for lowgrade paper-stock and like purposes.

My improved construction of gin is shown in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinal section of the front part of the gin. Fig. 2 is aside view of the same with the roll-box shown raised in dotted lines. Fig. 3 is a front elevation of the gin partly in section. Fig. 4 is a detail perspective of the gin-rib; and Fig. 5 is an enlarged detail showing the relation of the spiked cleaning-roll, the ribs, and the saws.

A represents the framework of the gin. B is the brush; 0, the saws. Dis the roll-box, into which the stock is fed through an opening at the top, and E are the ribs attached to the roll-box on the side next to the saws and forming the breast of the gin. These ribs are spaced a certain distance to allow the saws to protrude through into the roll-box to seize the fiber and carry it through the ribs to the brush.

The saws which I use are very much thinner than those ordinarily employed, being only about one thirty'second of an inch thick, and have much finer teeth, running not less than eleven to the inch, and the spacing-frames 0', between which the saws are clamped, have a continuous periphery with a concave or groove in the middle, (see Fig. 3,) and the sides of which approach very much more closely to the saw-teeth than usual, being only about nine-sixteenths of an inch from the edge. This close clamping is rendered necessary by the thinness of the saws which I employ. These spacing-frames for lightness are made like wheels with radial armsand acentralhub, and when the saws are all tightened up in series on their shaft these spacing-frames sepa rate the saws a uniform distance, which is the same as that existing between the spaces left between the ribs which form the breast of the in. R b The form of rib which I use has asharp oil'- set, a, at its upper end, (see Figs. 4 and 5,) and the sides of the ribs at these offsets are grooved orhollowed out, so as to form at the offsets a channel-way of larger size than exists between the ribs at points below.

In the roll-box is arranged a positivelyact ing spiked roller, F, which is driven at about twelve revolutions to twenty revolutions of the saw, which revolutions, taken in connection with the different diameters of the spiked roller and saws, make the points of the spiked roller travel about half as fast as the teeth of the saw and in the same direction. This spiked roller is not designed for use simply to form the roll; but its spikes are arranged in parallel rows, and each row occupies a position between the saws and. reaches down nearly to the ribs below the level of the saw-teeth, and pass so closely to the offset a of the ribs as to barely escape touching.

Now I do not claim the rib with the offset a, broadly, nor the spiked roller in the'rollbox, nor a positively-acting roller, separately considered, as these are old. The spiked roller and the rib with offset a are, in accordance with my invention, arranged to have a cooperative relation which gives a new result, and constitutes a very important combination of parts, making a new machine adapted to successfully perform the special work hereinbefore described by me. To make this better understood, I will state that the narrow saws and closely-spaced ribs will prevent the elastic hulls, immature seed, and knots of fiber from being pulled through; but such narrow-spaced ribs soon allow the space between the ribs just above the saws to becomejammcd and packed full of the defective seed and other elastic motes, which render the gin inoperative for the purpose. My invention contemplates the constant clearing away of this jammed stuff, and the construction of the rib and relative arrangement of the spiked roll effect this re sult in the following manner: \Vhen this jammed stuff forms between the ribs above the saw-teeth, as in Fig. 5, the offsets a allow the positively-acting spikes of the roll to lift said matter into the space in the roll-box above the offsets, the dislodgment of said matter and its return into the roll-box being facilitated by the increased space between the ribs which the grooves in the sides of the ribs at this point afford. It has been found, however, that the tendency of the saws to pull this jammed matter between the ribs along with the fiber will not allow this matter to rise and be returned to the roll-box without help from the spiked roll. Just here the co-operative function of the positively-acting spiked roll comes in, for the spikes in'passing closely to the offset lift the packed matters upwardly through the channel between the ribs till it rises above the offsets and is released, so that the roll can carry it over and allow it to drop out of the bottom of the roll box. The roll is therefore a cleaning-roll, and while the construction of the rib is such as to permit such result, this result could not be reached without the co-operative effect of both the special rib and the positively-acting spiked roll,with the teeth depending between the saws and scouring close to the offset ofthe ribs. For driving this roller with a positive action a chailrpulley, H, is arranged on its end, the side of which lies against a chain-belt, H, that derives its motion from a chain-pulley, H on the saw-shaft, and passes around pulleys H H mounted in adjustable brackets and arranged the one above and the other below the pulley H. The pulleys H H are mounted upon the framework of the gin by means of said brackets, which are slotted, as shown in Fig. 3, and provided with set screws to permitof adjustment. This relation of the pulley H to its drivingchain, it will be perceived, allows the roll-box to be readily turned upon its hinges without disturbing the chain-belt, and also allows the belt to be tightened.

In the operation of my machine the stock is fed into the top of the roll-box, the seed, motes, &c., drop out the bottom of the rollbox, the first grade of the stock is delivered to the brush and passes out of the back of the gin, and the second grade separates by being thrown down between the saws and the brush.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new is 1. In a saw-gin, the combination, with the saws, of a series of ribs having offsets or shoulders a, just above the point where the teeth pass through from the roll-box, and a spiked cleaning-roller having its prongs scouring close to the said offsets and between the saws, substantially as and for the purpose described.

2. In a saw-gin, the combination, with the saws, of a series of ribs having offsets or shoulders a,with concavities or grooves at the sides of said offsets, and a spiked cleaning-roller having its prongs scouring close to the said offsets and between the saws, substantially as and for the purpose described.

BENJ. ANDREWS.

Vvitnesses:

EDWD. \V. BYRN, SoLoN O. KEMON. 

